Pathways for food and land-use systems in the United Kingdom

Report

Our food and land-use systems are critical for staying within our planetary boundaries and the Earth’s system resilience. Among the six Transformations required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the fourth Transformation—focusing on food, land, and water—is crucial. This Transformation is key to achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). Moreover, it significantly supports the remaining SDGs, underscoring its crucial role in fostering a sustainable future.

In this document, we present the results of the 2023 ‘Scenathon’, a modelling exercise by the FABLE Consortium exploring three alternative futures for national and regional food and land-use systems. The term ‘Scenathon’ stands for ‘a marathon of scenarios’ and refers to FABLE’s iterative process for ensuring that national and regional pathways have coherent trade assumptions and align with global sustainability targets (see the 2024 Sustainable
Development report for more information).

Through these long-term pathways, we can identify trade-offs and synergies between different goals and see the impact of various actions, as well as key levers for guiding sustainable development policies through 2030 and 2050. These results, together with our modelling tools and methods, are designed to support decision-making and the development of better policies and targets to drive the transformation of our food and land-use systems.

Authors: Smith, AC; Lynch, J; Jones, S; Whittaker, F; Harrison, PA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Publisher: Sustainable Development Solutions Network
• Place of publication: Paris, France
• Publication date: 2024-01-01
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11550677
• Language: English
• Keywords: food; FABLE calculator; agriculture